Overview of Bio Energy

In this section we will explore the use of biomatter based energy. This includes fuels such as wood, corn, vegetable oil and other types of plant matter.  To some extent coal and oil are biomass fuels since they came originally from plant matter but because they were created through geological forces they are not really renewable, so they will not be discussed. However, wood and corn are renewable and the demand for them is growing.  In fact, the rapidly growing demand for food products such as corn has spawned a new debate as to whether or not these biological materials are best used for fuel or for feeding hungry populations. We will explore this energy debate and others in order to understand our best options for using green energy.

For a growing number of Americans, particularly those that live in areas where firewood is plentiful, the fireplace has become a lot more than just a utility for romantic enjoyment, it has become the primary means of heating their homes.  Given the recent rises in home heating oil and natural gas, many homeowners find they can save significant money by using wood to heat their homes, particularly if they have a wood burning stove instead of an inefficient fire place.  Sales of fuel efficient wood burning stoves and pellet stoves are at an all time high. 

One of the first places to begin in looking at biomatter approaches is with traditional fireplaces.  For all their charm, most fireplaces are terribly inefficient energy devices. A conventional fireplace turns only 10-20 percent of its fuel into useful heat, the rest usually goes up the chimney.  Fortunately, there are several options for those of you with conventional fireplaces.  One option is to retrofit your fireplace with a fireplace insert.  A fireplace insert is basically a small wood burning stove that can be inserted into your fireplace opening.  Fireplace inserts are much more fuel efficient and can boost your efficiency from 10% to as much as 70%.  Inserts now come in a wide variety of styles and in most cases you can find one which matches the look and feel of your existing chimney.  Learn more about this by looking at Fireplace Inserts on our menu.

If you don't have a fireplace, or if you don't want to go with an insert, another option is to replace your fireplace with a wood burning stove that can burn logs or pellets.  These stoves are quite versatile, highly efficient, and many can burn other fuels in addition to wood such as corn. For those of you building a new home another option is to use an old world technology, the masonry stoves.  Masonry stoves reflect designs that come out of Europe during what is sometimes referred to as the little ice age (a period between 1550 and 1850). During this period cold weather greatly increased the demand for firewood and it was essential to make fireplaces and stoves more efficient.  The Europeans developed an innovative type of stove which used masonry to hold heat combined with a labyrinth style flu structure to ensure that most of the heat was absorbed by the bricks which then radiated the heat to the room. You can find out more on each of these types of stoves in our Equipment section. 

Biomass fuels are also among the top areas of exploration in the transportation fuel arena.  Ethanol, which is usually produced by burning bio-matter such as corn, straw or cane stalk, is rapidly becoming a popular option for increasing our transportation fuel supply.  Many gasoline producers now add ethanol to their mix and the production of ethanol is up dramatically in places like the US and South America.  Another approach to leveraging biological fuels is  to use left over vegetable oil.  This fuel, usually referred to as biodiesel, can be mixed with regular diesel gasoline  Check out more about bio fuels for transportation in our Transportation Fuel section.

If you wish to do a deep dive on any of these topics we recommend you look at the Resources section where you can find listings of books, magazines and article about biomass energy approaches.  Also, you might want to consider joining one of the many organizations who support this approach to energy generation.  You can find out about them by looking in our Organizations section.  Keep the fire burning! :)